The present invention relates to the construction of shipping and storage containers, and particularly to a tubular wall box tray for forming storage and transport containers for heavy and/or fragile objects.
A particularly vexing problem has arisen in the shipping and storage of x-ray film, comprising large sheets of gelatin like material, coated with silver or other precious metals. These sheets are of such size and weight that even enclosing them in individual envelopes does not afford the necessary protection against distortion or adhesion of the sheets to the envelope or each other when boxed and stacked for storage or shipment. The weight of the film is so great that only a few sheets can be boxed in a single container and only a few containers can be stacked one upon the other before the containers begin to warp and the total weight destroys the containers lowermost in the stack. The warping of the containers further causes the sheets to compress together resulting in the sheets sticking and pasting together thus destroying their usefulness.
While this problem is particularly troublesome in connection with x-ray film there are no doubt many other fields in which the problem arises particularly with regard to the storage and shipment of fragile articles such as chinaware, glassware or plastic industrial components. Thus, while the present invention was made with particular regard to the shipment and transport of x-ray film, it will be clearly understood from the following that it does in fact have wide applications.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a container which would permit the transport of heavy sheet material or fragile objects and which is so strong as not to be distorted, crushed or otherwise destroyed as a result of great weight being placed thereon.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tubular wall box tray component for forming transport containers wherein the walls are of such strength and rigidity so as to enable a great number of such trays, and/or covered containers formed with such trays to be stacked one upon the other wherein the weight of the contents are distributed to the peripheral edges thereby relieving the interior bottom wall of any weight stress and wherein the tubular walls do not sag laterally.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a tubular wall box tray from a single blank, which can be easily shipped in flat, and which can be erected, for use, by merely folding over the side edges into the tubular wall, structure and by combining such trays into complete containers.
Other objects of the present invention, together with numerous advantages will in part be obvious from the following disclosure and will in part appear from detailed description therein.